Thursday, July 28, 2005

This did not happen to me. But I got a phone call telling me this story. I will try to repeat the story as it was told to me.

“So, I had to run out at lunch today to buy my kid his birthday presents, right. I go to Wal-Mart and I get him a few things and I realize I should run over to Target, because they have a better selection of toys he would like. On my way to Target I stop at Burger King to pick up lunch.

I pull into the Target parking lot and I see a space open right up front. I pull in and figure I would finish my lunch while sitting in my car with the AC on. As I am pullinginto the parking spot I see this old guy kind of wave to me but I don’t think anything of it. He waves to me again so I waved back. So, I am sitting there eating my cheeseburger when the old guy walks over and get into the passenger seat of the car. He sits down and says, “That Air conditioning feels good.” I didn’t say anything. I don’t know why.

So then the old guy says,“Whatcha eating?”I said “A cheeseburger”.The old guy says “From where?”I said, “Burger king”Then the old guy starts telling me that he ate at the diner this morning so he is not hungry and he tells me what he had. We had this conversation while I was finishing my burger.

After like 2 maybe 5 minutes I finally say to the old guy. “Sir? Who are you?”The old looks over at me and says. “Oh my god! I thought you were my son picking me up.” I couldn’t help but start laughing in the guys face. He was embarrassed. I was embarrassed because I am so into my lunch that I let some stranger sit in my car with me and carry a conversation. I felt bad for the guy. But then I am thinking, maybe this guy is the front man for some carjacker. Or maybe he is setting me up to be robbed. So I got a little freaked out.

Just then a car similar to mine pulls up, and a guy gets out. Now I am thinking I am going to be robbed. The old guy gets out of the car and the man that just pulled up says, “Dad? What are doing?”

I started laughing hysterically. I felt bad, because maybe the old guy had Alzheimer’s or something. But his son is all embarrassed. The Old guy is all embarrassed. And I realized that the old guy just thought I was his son picking him up. He just wasn’t paying attention. But the entire time he was in my car he didn’tlook over at me. You would think my voice would have given it away.

Then I am thinking Why Did I sit there and have a conversation with him?

I keep laughing about this story even though it was told to me last week.

Bless his heart. And isn't it too bad that we automatically think the worst (potential for robbery, etc.) when things just 'happen'. Who knows....perhaps it was an angelic test to see how you would handle the situation, and how you would behave towards a stranger. You know they say there are angels among us....

That is hilarious. I have waved at people in cars before that I thought was my husband picking me up, and even once tried to get in a similar vehicle, thank goodness it was empty, lol. But if someone just climbed in my car, I would freak out right away!